Milky Peko-Chan Candy – Sato Nishiki Cherry

The Peko-Chan mascot strikes again…this time less fear and horror and more curiosity and bewilderment. I’ve tried their chewy candies before and while Hi-Chew is still the best, these are serviceable and shareable in a good way. Plus, I like how Japanese brands do cherry flavoured things instead of how the West does it, so I can only assume I will enjoy this overall.

Sato Nishiki cherries are a special breed, exclusively from the Yamagata prefecture. Unfortunately I haven’t had the privilege of trying them in person, so I am assuming this is going to taste like cherry. A tasty cherry. I know often cherry flavoured things get a bad rap for tasting like cough medicine, but truthfully I sort of like that old fashioned flavour. Truthfully having tried many varieties of actual cherry, I can understand why it’s a bit hard to emulate in a simple fruit flavour.

Beneath the cute wax wrapper is a milky looking sphere that is clearly split between two sides. I can only assume one side is the classic milky flavour, and the other is the cherry flavour. The smell alone makes this very enticing – it’s got a sweet, floral dairy like smell to it.

The flavour itself is equal parts milky and equal parts floral cherry. Unlike what I was expecting, this cherry has a deep floral but cherry flavour that seems natural and natural when compared to the ever so common cough drop flavour we have in North America. Perhaps it’s the milk flavour but the piece comes together to make a very tasty and mouthwatering flavour that makes me want a cherry ice cream. Cherry is a flavour I struggle to describe, because it’s got what I can only describe as a deep, darker flavour with slight earthiness to it. But yet it’s floral and still distinct.

The texture is similar to a taffy where it starts somewhat hard, but leaving it in the mouth for a few seconds and it quickly softens up and gets easier to chew. As you chew the piece begins to melt and much like a salt water taffy, it leaves a few pieces of sticky stuff between the cracks if you aren’t careful. If you haven’t had taffy, caramel is the next best proxy I could use to describe this texture.

Maybe it’s because I actually like cherry, but these are quite tasty for me, and the texture while a bit sticky and more like a caramel than a chewy taffy, I do enjoy these quite a bit. If I were to run into these again I would not hesitate to grab another bag.